POLI-TICKING

With the filing deadline for the 2006 ballot four
days away on Friday, there is still no Republican
willing to take on Jack A. Markell, the Democratic state
treasurer running for his third term.

It means that Markell has had the leisure to focus on
his real rivalry, the one with Lt. Gov. John C. Carney
Jr. for the 2008 Democratic nomination for governor.

Each of them, of course, has had a charmed political
career. Markell knocked off a Republican incumbent to
make his mark from the start and was the Democrats' top
statewide vote-getter both times he ran in 1998 and
2002. Carney likewise led the party's statewide ticket
in his two races in 2000 and 2004 and has Gov. Ruth Ann
Minner's backing for 2008.

Markell, 45, entered politics with the financial
independence from being on the ground floor with Nextel
in the early days of the telecommunications revolution.
It let him build a campaign war chest of $1.5 million,
half of it from his own pocket.

Carney, 50, came into politics with the name
recognition from his athletic glory days as the
quarterback on the 1973 state championship football team
at St. Mark's High School and his All-Ivy League
credentials at Dartmouth College. It made him a cinch
for the jock vote, and he has done everything he can to
keep it.

Carney is a cheerleader for physical fitness through
his "Lt. Governor's Challenge" -- his staff has a
fondness for abbreviating "lieutenant" and spelling out
"governor" -- and he recently sponsored a fun walk
around the Monster Mile at Dover Downs.

It appears, however, that Markell is unwilling to
concede Carney the jock vote. Markell has put together a
campaign event he is calling "Tour de Delaware" and
plans to ride a bicycle on a three-day trip that will
take him the length of the state from Aug. 23 to Aug.
25.

Markell will cycle from Claymont to Newark to
Delaware City on the first day, from Delaware City to
Middletown to Clayton to Dover to Harrington on the
second day, and from Harrington to Bridgeville to Bethel
to Delmar on the third day. Although Delaware is about
110 miles long, the zigzags in the ride will make it
about 150 miles.

Floyd Landis, he is not. But it one-ups a dinky fun
walk at Dover Downs.

No objection, Your Honor

When Carolyn Berger became a state Supreme Court
justice 12 years ago, there was judicial warfare.

The opening was being created because Justice Andrew
G.T. Moore was being dumped. Delaware was doing what it
takes great pains not to do -- making a spectacle out of
its highest court.

Although the state has little stomach for rocking the
bench, because it teams with the Court of Chancery to
provide a prestigious and lucrative international
franchise in business law, there was even less stomach
for Moore because of his habit of scalding lawyers.

Moore departed, a rare case of a sitting judge denied
reappointment. Berger, who was a vice chancellor at the
time, was moved up. In one way it was a typical route,
going from Chancery to the Supreme Court, but in another
way it was unique. Berger was the first woman to get
there.

After so much hullabaloo last time, there is none
now. Berger recently applied to the Judicial Nominating
Commission for another 12-year term, and F. Michael
Parkowski, the Dover lawyer who is the chair, is
expected to meet with Minner this week to present its
recommendation, according to Joseph C. Schoell, the
governor's counsel.

Although no one will say for sure because the
nominating commission's deliberations are confidential,
it is safe to assume that the only name on Parkowski's
list will be Berger's.

Technically Berger's term expired Saturday, but under
the state constitution, judges may hold over for 60 days
without a new nomination and confirmation by the state
Senate. A special session will have to be held before
Sept. 11 to meet the deadline for the Supreme Court seat
and two on Family Court, Schoell said.

Berger is on track to remain the only woman ever on
the Supreme Court and the only justice ever to have a
judge for a husband. She is married to Superior Court
Judge Fred S. Silverman.